Field
This disclosure is generally related to controlling the display of content. More specifically, this disclosure is related to a system and method for controlling the direction for the display of content.
Related Art
The progress of technology brings an increasing amount of mobile usage into various aspects of everyday life. People use mobile devices such as cell phones and tablets everywhere, e.g., riding or waiting for public transportation, standing in line, sitting down in a park, drinking or eating at home or at a restaurant, and lying down in bed. Devices are often held in a vertical position, but sometimes a user moves the phone to a horizontal position (e.g., to watch a movie or view a picture that is in landscape format). Traditional phone software may use gravity sensors to determine whether the position of the phone has changed, and change the display direction for the content accordingly. However, a user may wish to “lock” the corresponding rotation of the content when the user rotates the device. For example, when a user is lying down, the user may wish to keep the display direction of the content locked regardless of the position or rotation of the device.
Existing methods that allow a user to lock or unlock content rotation that corresponds to device rotation may involve navigating to a settings screen and selecting an option or icon to lock or unlock rotation. Subsequent changes to the device position may also require additional navigation, selection, and other operations by the user. However, these methods are cumbersome for the user and decrease the efficiency of the device. Other methods may present a floating lock icon on the screen only after the device has been rotated, e.g., when the device position has changed. However, this method does not allow the user to lock the rotation until after a default content rotation occurs in response to a device rotation. Furthermore, these ineffective methods may result in time-consuming processes for the device.